“The separation between the middle class and the upper class, it’s growing, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence. . . . It’s easier to control people when they’re under your thumb.”

.. if the middle class really stood to benefit from this tax plan, Republicans wouldn’t have worked behind closed doors and rushed to pass it.

.. As Johnson has watched interviews with Republican lawmakers, he said, he has noticed that they can’t answer this simple question: “Is this going to help the middle class?”

“I don’t even get upset anymore, because they’re not going to listen,” said Johnson, who traveled to Sterling Heights on Wednesday to do some Christmas shopping at Lakeside Mall. “They don’t care. There’s nothing else to say. They just don’t care.”